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Cloud Computing

Tech Talk Tuesday: Family Documents

Last week I finished my early summer project. Scanning the kids’ schoolwork onto a hard drive. Remember the boxes of paper your mom used to have, every test and worksheet piled high into a stack of termite bait? I just take a day at the end of each semester and scan the work into a portable hard drive and I’m all done. I feel great about it, and it seems like such a perfect solution to the paper problem, but I forgot one thing

our home.

Two weeks ago as I was finishing up the school work scanning project, and our friend Jon came buy. He looked at what I was doing and said, “I’m involved in a start up…”

So Jon showed me Home Data Guard. Home Data Guard (HDG) is essentially a remote file cabinet for your important documents. They’re using Amazon for their secure servers, so it’s well encrypted (meaning you’re quite safe from identity theft). In many regards HDG isn’t very different than any other cloud computing data storage site, except they’re just like you.

Home Data Guard was born from tragedy and rather than being a tech company in a tech space, they’re a home company bringing you tech. Make sense? The interface is clean and simple and they guide you through which documents you need and why.

Here in Los Angeles my big preparedness is for an earthquake. I often worry what would happen if both my house and my bank came tumbling down. I stash flash cards and hard drives in my safety deposit box, but what if…

Home Data Guard has one thing no one else seems to. For a small fee they send someone to your home to scan and organize all the documents. For all of you who are taking care of a parent or grandparent, this is sensitive stuff. Sometimes a third party can keep the busy work from being the family drama. Oh, and apparently your insurance agent would appreciate a little organization too.

I think Home Data Guard is a good idea, but they’re user interface is great. Look at this fantastic PDF checklist.